Reckitt is using AI to automate the grunt work

Reckitt, the company behind brands like Lysol and Mucinex, is leveraging AI to streamline marketing processes and boost efficiency. By categorizing 300 tasks across its marketing teams, Reckitt identified areas where AI, particularly generative AI, could automate, accelerate or augment work done by humans. Fabrice Beaulieu, chief marketing, sustainability and corporate affairs officer of Reckitt - noted that AI doesn’t replace people, it automates tasks, and the has led to improved efficiency and quality: concept development is now 60% faster, ad localization has sped up by 30%, and media analytics have become 90% quicker with improved quality. This allows their teams to focus more on strategic initiatives rather than mundane tasks.

The marketing industry has been obsessed with AI, the rare trend that dominated conversation at two consecutive Cannes Lions festivals. But marketers are often vague about exactly how they’re implementing AI.

Not so with Fabrice Beaulieu, chief marketing, sustainability and corporate affairs officer of Reckitt, who recently sat down for interviews entirely about AI during Cannes, with a follow-up last month.

In Ad Age’s latest Marketer’s Brief podcast, Beaulieu talks about how Reckitt is applying AI to get insights faster and reduce tedious work at the company, which markets such brands as Lysol, Mucinex and Airwick.

“AI doesn’t replace jobs. AI automates tasks,” Beaulieu said. “The first thing we’ve done at Reckitt is to categorize all the tasks that 2,000 marketers collectively do. Roughly 300 tasks.”

For about a third of those tasks, it makes sense to use generative AI, which frees marketers for more productive tasks, he said.

Read more at AdAge.